The Meaning of Belonging
by JaneSwan
Summary: Prequel to The Meaning of Justice. How someone could read a scroll and still manage to mess something up was a talent.


It seemed history was doomed to repeat itself.

I trudged through the snow, Naruto's arm over my shoulder as I carried his dead weight down a street. Why my mind was likening the strange city to the Forest of Death from our chunnin exams, I wasn't sure. But like then, Naruto was unconscious and I was the one left to find shelter for both of us.

And we were somehow twelve again.

My brow twitched as I fumed, tempted to throw Naruto on the ground in an attempt to wake him and get answers. How someone could read a scroll and _still _manage to mess something up was a talent.

A talent I would kill him for.

I looked around me, taking in the tall buildings and strangely clothed people. Even in the snow—weather we were not at all prepared for my body reminded me as a shiver raked my body—women were scantily clad, to the point where it was not difficult to guess their professions.

Prostitutes.

I turned us down an alley and narrowed my eyes as I realized we had drawn attention to ourselves.

A man called to me, his language foreign and his footsteps swallowed by the snow. I ignored him, moving my pace a little faster.

What type of place where we if I could not understand the language?

Another voice joined his as I reached exit to the alley—just as three other men did. They stood in front of me, the fattest in the middle, his impressive beer belly jutting out from his jacket accentuated by his folded arms.

I turned my head to the man who seemed to be calling the shots behind me. He had a proud smirk on his face; his brown hair greased back and wore what looked like an expensive suit with several gold chains.

I knew what his profession was, too.

Pimp.

He continued to talk in his strange language and I slowly eased Naruto up against a wall, a moan escaping him. I turned back to the pimp, that smirk still in place. I'd apparently done what he'd wanted me to.

He held a hand out to me, beckoning, and I knew what he wanted.

The old man thought he could use me as one of his prostitutes.

The thought might have made me laugh any other day. But right now, my priority was Naruto. In this horrid weather and with him unconscious from overexertion of chakra, the cold was no place for him. He was vulnerable to illness out here.

I would take care of these men quickly and then continue to look for a warm place for him.

I stepped slowly over to the pimp, doing my best to school my young face into an expression of uneasiness and fear.

When I got close enough, I leveled him with a glare and then charged.

My fist met his jaw quickly, adding a bit more chakra than necessary, sending him flying into the trash cans piled on the wall. The wails of anger and surprise I understood.

I quickly sunk into the rhythm of my dance, weaving back and forth, dodging the multiple attacks that came my way. I kicked the largest man in his beer belly and continued my legs arch, throwing myself into the air and landing behind the men, dispatching two more.

That left two that I had to take care of.

Enraged, a man with colorful sunglasses roared as he charged me. I jumped at the right moment, touching down on his head to propel myself farther into the air. I landed in front of the last man and a black barrel stared back at me.

There was a loud boom and I moved quickly to the side, trying to avoid whatever it was, and pain flared up in my arm as the man I'd used as a jump pad cried out. He fell to the ground, dead.

I looked back at the man, eyes wide as I tried to digest what had just happened. The barrel the man held killed his friend instantly. How was that possible?

Realizing that I should never take my eyes off of my enemy, I turned back quickly, coming face to face with a masked man.

The man with the barrel lay on the ground, not dead, his barrel weapon sunken in a pile of snow.

I blinked once before jumping back, arms upraised, ready for my next opponent. My eyes flickered once to Naruto, gauging his temperature.

The masked man slowly raised his arms, speaking slowly in that weird language.

I wondered briefly if he would understand mine.

"Who are you?" I asked, glaring up at him.

He looked surprised for a moment before taking a single step towards me.

"I asked, who are you!?" I shrieked, jumping back and hand slipping behind me to grasp my tantō.

I couldn't tell a thing from the man, what with his masked face. I knew it wasn't common here, what with the pimps that lay at my feet, maskless and ugly.

I glanced again at Naruto. His whole body shivered uncontrollably. I had to find warmth soon. I wondered the possibility if I grabbed him and ran—how long would we last?

The masked man followed my line of sight and then suddenly said a word I understood.

"_Fire."_

**.**

Naruto laid in front of the fire, a goofy smile on his face as he dreamed, now comfortable in new clothes and soaking up the heat. I sat on a couch (one of many that dotted the large room), my legs pulled into my chest. The masked man had left us here with an older man who had taken care of any little want we could have had—warm food, dry clothes, hot baths…

And despite that, I was not comfortable.

The man, Alfred, (he'd repeated his name several times until I could pronounce it) was wonderful, but I worried about the masked man suddenly appearing. Helping us like this… he'd surely want something in return. I looked down at myself and heaved a sigh. At least I could cross out him wanting my body—he'd have to be a real creep to be interested in me now. It would have been a possibility if I was still twenty.

I feared having to go through puberty all over again.

"I'll save you…" Naruto mumbled under his breath. "Sakura-chan!" At his sudden outburst, he jolted up, startled as he took in his surroundings. He was on his feet in moments, albeit a little awkwardly for having to compensate for a shorter height than he was used to. His eyes found me and he was at my side in less than seconds, back to me as he reached for a weapon that was not there.

"Gah!" he cried, spinning a couple of times as if he could see every part of himself. "Where are we?! Where's my weapons?!"

I sighed again and smacked him upside the head to make him calm down.

"Thanks to you, I have no idea where we are. That's something _you _should know." My eyebrow twitched. If he didn't know where we were, we were most likely screwed. "As for your weapons, the one who 'rescued' us took them."

He looked like he was about to ask the story behind the rescuing, until he really turned and looked at me. And promptly fell over, trying to inch awkwardly away from me.

"S-S-S-Sakura-chan! Wh-wh-what happened to you!?" he stuttered and then he looked down at himself and let out a girly scream as he realized he was in the same pathetic boat. "What happened to us!?"

I smacked him upside the head again as a boy appeared at the door, looking to be about our age. He had dark hair that was slicked back and green eyes that stared at us curiously. He moved slowly into the room as if we were dangerous animals instead of children (admitting that we were children made me cringe.)

"Konnichiwa."

I blinked, surprised by the greeting. It seemed too much to hope for that he would understand us.

I nodded to him, replying, "Konnichiwa."

The boy grinned and ran into the room, flinging himself in front of the black mirror over the fireplace. He hit a button on a rectangle box and it came to life, startling both Naruto and I. He grasped another odd shaped box and clicked a couple of buttons, the screen responding in kind. He looked over at us and asked what sounded like a question, gesturing to the box in his hands.

Naruto, most likely having no idea what he was asking and figuring the fastest way to find out was by saying yes, nodded.

It quickly became apparent that this was how the boy and we would interact, if only at first.

It was a start.

**.**

That was how Alfred and the dark haired man found us—Naruto and I taking turns mashing buttons to make our characters beat the boy (he repeated his name like Alfred did), Dick's, character.

Naruto never won while I always seemed to win.

It looked like the two had begun transpiring against me. I would have to quickly quell the brewing rebellion.

Naruto and I knew the two adults were watching us, but we couldn't bring ourselves to look at them with how entranced we were by the TV, Dick called it.

"It's my turn!" Naruto demanded, his hands attempting to rip the controller from my hands.

I quickly sidestepped him as he charged, tripping him as I did so. He went down like a sack of potatoes as I bounded away, sticking my tongue out childishly.

"Sa….ku….ra…." he ground out as he slowly raised, his eyes dangerously bright.

My own eyes widened and I mentally prepared myself for the battle Naruto would wage. Offhandedly, I pondered our (at least _mine_) sudden decline to the children we looked like. Could that be a side effect?

"Don't act like such a kid, Naruto-baka!"

I knew I was instigating. I knew taunting him would do me no good, especially since he seemed to forget that one well aimed punch from me could have him in fetal position for a good hour.

And he might not be able to reproduce after that.

I blinked for a moment, lost in the fantasy of a tear stricken Hinata as she begged "_Why!?"_

Poor Hinata.

My temporary loss of focus cost me the time I needed to side step Naruto. In the sudden panic, I forgot where I was (and that I might need to hide what I can do) and preformed a substitution jutsu.

My clone disappeared in a cloud of smoke, revealing a pillow in its place.

There was a small gasp from Dick, but I didn't have the time to beat myself up for forgetting that these people might have never seen a shinobi before—I reminded myself that the man had already seen me, a twelve year old girl with weird hair, beat up several fully grown men with nothing but my bare hands.

He would know I was not normal.

**.**

It was a slow process, learning their language and small tid bits of information. Bruce, the dark haired man that happened to wear a mask when he became 'Batman', and Dick (whom I'd caught in tights, too) disappeared most nights and most nights Naruto and I followed them, keeping to the shadows. Despite our reduced age, our bodies seemed to be the same when it came to muscle size and muscle memory.

As we learned to speak English and as Bruce learned Japanese, the same question came up often: Where are your parents?

We pretended to not understand, as Naruto and I wracked our brains for ways that we could return to Konoha. The man had saved us, knew that we were not normal, but we didn't trust him farther than we could throw him, which was common for shinobi to feel towards unknown people.

Lucky for him, I had quite the arm.

I pretended to learn at Naruto's speed when it came to the language, when I had mastered the spoken language within two weeks.

I wasn't one of the smartest of my generation for nothing.

It also gave me an idea of what type of people they were when they thought we couldn't understand them.

I knew they weren't like most people—Bruce, Dick, and Alfred never once complained about us. And it was always hilarious, what Dick would say to Naruto while it was just us.

And in the huge manor, it happened often. Bruce would be mingling at a party, Alfred would be cleaning or preparing some kind of meal, and we'd be playing video games or sparring.

"I'll fight you for Sakura!" Dick proclaimed during one sparring session, causing me to stare in confusion.

Naruto, of course, picked out 'fight' and 'Sakura' in his sentence and quickly got into stance, taking offense.

"You bastard!" he yelled in English, of course only knowing the curses fluently.

Ten year old Robin gasped. "I'll tell Alfred to wash your mouth out with soap!"

"LET'S GO."

Naruto pounced, charging with his hands upraised, making a sign as ten Narutos appeared.

"Hey! No chakra!" Robin complained as he dodged a punch and kicked the clone away, forcing it to become a cloud of smoke.

Nine clones to go.

I always enjoyed watching Robin outsmart Naruto, always knowing which one was the real one. He threw out several batarangs, each one of them hitting a clone. With Naruto and Robin around, I didn't think they'd ever need a smoke pellet.

When the smoke cleared, Robin was easily seated on Naruto's unconscious body, drool escaping his mouth. He looked over at me, a proud smirk curling his lips as he waited for my congratulations.

I cheered, walking over to help him up. The sly kid accepted my outstretched hand, bouncing up on his feet and pressing a peck on my cheek with a wink.

"Claiming my prize," he explained as he walked off with a whistle, my hand covering the place he kissed me.

My blush I chalked up to hormones.

**.**

"_I've decided," _I said suddenly in Japanese as we were seated at a long table, eating dinner with Bruce, Dick, and Naruto. It was a rare occurrence, when everyone was there and Gotham didn't need saving.

Naruto looked over at me with a raised brow, a gesture he seemed to have gotten from the dark haired man (and boy) in the room.

"_What is it, Sakura-chan?"_

"_I trust them."_

Naruto didn't look surprised; I'm sure he trusted them from the beginning.

I cleared my throat, my eyes going to Bruce's curious face. We'd been here for about two months now, and I felt we knew more than most in this city. I glanced over to Robin, who's head was tilted curiously, his eyes narrowed as if he was trying to decipher what I had said.

I knew that he was getting close to fluent in Japanese, thanks to wanting to know what we said.

The same went for Bruce.

"I apologize for any deceit I might have done, Bruce, Dick," I paused to sip some water. How is it that we go about explaining who we were and where we came from?

"Sakura-chan and I do not know how we came to be here," Naruto explained, his accent thick as he tried to help me. My tutoring dumbed down the language enough for him to understand, thankfully.

"In our village…" I took a deep breath and explained everything.

And how it was all Naruto-baka's fault.

**.**

* * *

** So, whatcha think? This is the prequel to my new story The Meaning of** **Justice**, **and just to let everyone know: it's going to be a multiple chapter story. Because that's how much space this is taking up in my head. I figure if I get it out there, I can go back to having a social life! **

** Please review, tell me what you think, and we will continue with the story.**

**All my love,**

** Jane Swan.**

**P.S. Can I say 'prostitute' in a T rated story? (Sorry if I offended anyone. Sakura is harsh like that.)**


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